Eureka, Lafayette Seniors Earn National Scholarships

Three distinguished high school seniors will receive corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 200 corporations, company foundations and other business organizations, according to a Rockwood announcement. 

The students and their probable career fields are:

• Richard Lu, , ; Probable career field:  Biology
• Connor Tinen, , ; Probable career field:  Engineering
• Rebecca Jia-En Shih, Marquette High School, Chesterfield; Probable career field:  Biomedical Engineering

had an especially great year. Read other Patch articles:

Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors, . 

Scholarship winners were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors. Recipients may use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university. 

About 1.5 million juniors in 22,000-plus high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. In September 2011, nearly 16,000 semifinalists were designated on a state representational basis, in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the nation’s high school graduating seniors. Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than 1 percent of a state’s seniors.

To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to finalist standing. Some 15,000 semifinalists met finalist requirements.

By the conclusion of the 2012 program, about 8,300 finalists will have earned the “Merit Scholar” title, and received a total of nearly $35 million in college scholarships.